258 DK. J. MUEIE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CAAING WHALE. 



with only slight indications of longitudinal rugse. The true pyloric orifice is ring-like 

 and thickened, thus approaching a sphmcter in its formation, though I doubt if this 

 designation can justly be applied to it. The diameter of the opening is fully half an 

 inch. 



Comparing my interpretation of the gastric chambers with the observations of the 

 aforesaid writers, it does sound odd that Williams and Gulliver should limit the 

 number to two. This anomaly, I think, receives explanation on the ground that they 

 only consider the large dilated sacs as stomachal receptacles, the narrower chambers 

 but as portion of the intestinal tube. Jackson's five or six gastric divisions are to me 

 accounted for in this way. He describes (and in outline figures ') the compound stomach 

 in the inflated condition, consequently the partial septal membrane of the first chamber 

 appeared to him as a crescentic supplementary cavity. What I name as the canal of 

 junction between the second and third stomachs he avers is a distinct division. His 

 subsidiary division, fifth or sixth as may be, is the dilated duodenal commencement. 

 Turner^ evidently takes the same view of the nature of the canal between the second and 

 third stomachs as Jackson. Where we differ, then, is whether the burrowing passage 

 between the vascular corrugated and large cavity II and the globular (///, fig. 32 in 

 Plates) is entitled to be regarded as a true digestive division or not. I look upon it 

 only as a communicating canal; because of its diminutive capacity^ and diameter; 

 because it is not at all a free chamber, but, strictly speaking, like the end of the bile- 

 duct, a tunnel burrowing its whole length betwixt the adjoining walls of // and IV \ 

 because of its smooth mucous membrane showing few or no traces of digestion taking 

 place therein ; because the other four chambers agree with what obtains in Phocmna, 

 Grampus, and Balanioptera, and the two latter also offer an incipient structure of a 

 similar kind, and corresponding in situation ; and, lastly, because I regard certain of 

 the so-called stomachs of some Cetaceans [Hyperoodon for example, with six or seven) 

 as only canals between the true digestive chambers, as is shoAvn above. 



As is not uncommon in Whales, the duodenum of the " Deductor" commences by a 

 dilatation 4^ inches in transverse diameter, which, narrowiag somewhat at 9 inches 

 distance from the pylorus, is pierced slit-wise by the combined hepatic and pancreatic 

 duct. This interval of gut has smooth-surfaced mucous membrane, and hence by some 

 has been considered as a division of the stomach ; but, as has been shown by others, the 

 duct's entrance and want of constriction evinces its true nature. From this point onwards 

 to the rectum there is no separation by valvular division, csecal appendage, or sudden 



' Loc. cit. pi. 15. fig. 2. ' Paper cited, p. 70, ■n'oodcut, fig. 2. 



' I had almost omitted reference to a second contribntiou of Professor Turner's (" Further Observations on the 

 Stomach in the C'etacea," Joxirn. of Anat. 1869, p. 117), where he gives measurements of the several gastric com- 

 partments of the dried and inflated stomach of an adult GlohiocejuJiahis (?) and a foetus, in support of his opinion 

 of there being five, and not four, true digestive stomachs. The dried, distended condition of his adult specimen, 

 as in Dr. Jackson's case, still causes me to doubt the soundness of his argument. With reference to his third 

 compartment or stomach (my intercommunicating passage), he notes it was Oi inches long and from 1 to Sj 

 inches in diameter in the adult : but the same chamber or canal in the foetus was with difficulty recognizable. 



